U.S. and world news for Jan. 9

Biden in Mexico: President Biden is in Mexico City for meetings with Mexico’s President Andrés Manuel López Obrador and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. Yesterday, Biden spent a few hours in El Paso, Texas, visiting the border with Mexico. He met with various officials charged with controlling the flow of legal and illegal immigrants into the U.S. from Mexico but did not visit with immigrants.

House to meet today: The House of Representatives is scheduled to be in session later today to take up the House Rules package that contains concessions made to far-right Republicans by Kevin McCarthy in order to get their votes that ultimately got him elected Speaker of the House. McCarthy’s election came on the 15th ballot in the overnight hours Saturday morning. In his speech accepting the gavel, he promised that the first piece of legislation he’ll propose will be one that the far-right wants that would eliminate the IRS hiring 85,000 new employees. Approximately 35,000 IRS employees are scheduled for retirement and in addition to replacing them the agency wanted to add employees to expand activities such as audits of tax returns from corporations and the wealthy.

Bernard Kalb dies: Bernard Kalb, a correspondent for The New York Times, CBS News and NBC News, died yesterday in North Bethesda, Maryland, at the age of 100. Kalb was known for covering Southeast Asia as well as the State Department. He also was teamed with his younger brother, correspondent Marvin Kalb.

Russia claims 600 killed: Ukraine denies a claim by Russia this morning that Russian missiles killed 600 Ukrainian soldiers in an attack on a vocational school in the eastern part of the country. Ukraine said the missiles only blew out windows and wrecked some classrooms that were not in use.

Pro-Bolsonaro mob: Brazilian authorities say they’ll prosecute supporters of ousted President Bolsonaro who yesterday stormed government buildings. The pro-Bolsonaro mob had hoped the country’s military would join in their rebellion, but it did not.

Bad weather: Northern and Central California and parts of Western Nevada are expected to be hit with heavy rains, high winds, flash floods and mudslides today and tomorrow according to the National Weather Service. More than 100,000 customers were without power in the Sacramento area after storms over the weekend.

Cover photo courtesy NOPACTalent